midtown

[GEORGE THOMPSON]

        One of the many things my defunct mother-in-law never forgave me
for, was my persistent refering to the center of her home town (which
lay about two blocks from the outskirts of town, where her house was)
as "downtown", whereas, properly, it was "uptown".  I had been raised
in a town built upon hills (Meriden, Conn.) and the center of town
was downhill from my home, and from the homes of many other citizens.
 My mother-in-law's town (Elizabeth, Pa.) was on the bank of the
Monogahela river, and the center of town was upstream from where she
lived.  I do not know whether the people who lived at the opposite
end of Elizabeth referred to the center of town as "downtown",
because it would be downstream, from their point of view.  But
Mother was not much given to considering other people's points of
view.

        Would not the term "midtown" be used most in towns that rejoice in
the elongated street pattern of Manhattan?  Brooklyn doesn't have a
"midtown".   The term"the center" is also widely used.

GAT